Tuesday 26 February 2019 12:22 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 1:50 am

Huawei chairman says the US has ‘no evidence, nothing’ of Chinese backdoors in 5G

Huawei's chairman Guo Ping has said there is "no evidence, nothing" to support US claims of spying via its telecommunications equipment.

"We don't do bad things," said Ping, speaking in a keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

"Here, let me say this as clearly as possible: Huawei has not and will never plant backdoors. And we will never allow anyone to do so in our equipment."

Huawei has been putting a great deal of effort in recent months into convincing countries that it does not spy on citizens for the Chinese government, after the US and several others banned Huawei's network equipment over cyber security fears.

The firm's smartphone launch on Sunday was overshadowed by such news, as Ping told reporters that the company could continue to operate without a business in the US for the foreseeable future.

Huawei's European boss Vincent Peng said yesterday that the company needs to be "more transparent" about its cyber security practices, adding that the problems the firm is facing are "a technical challenge, not a political challenge".

Ping also took the opportunity on stage today to criticise the US, calling it "ironic" that US President Donald Trump passed a law last year which enables companies such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook to give data on all of their users globally to the US government when requested.

"Huawei has had a strong track record in security for three decades, serving 3bn people around the world," he said. "The US security accusation on our 5G has no evidence, nothing."

Ping echoed similar calls made by Peng yesterday for the EU, governments, telecoms operators to work together on achieving a unified global standard for 5G cyber security.

"Let the experts decide whether networks are safe or not," he added.

A senior US official later stood by the country's decisions, telling reporters in Barcelona: "We know that Huawei itself has been duplicitous and deceitful."